the execution and its message There existed an ever-present risk, however, that some failure such as a botched execution could distort the intended message, leaving symbols and ideas to be interpreted in some other way by those present.363 In contemporary research an idea is often presented or presupposed in which the authorities were solely interested in the punishment, and then mostly as deterrence and retribution. The condemned and her eternal fate were of no interest or only of importance through the confession of guilt, which in this interpretation principally was of secular importance. Through the confession in all its forms the condemned showed that the authorities were correct in their sentence and were right in their punishment, and thus it glorified and legitimised the government, the state, and those in power.364 Such a sharp distinction between popular beliefs and beliefs among officials and rulers should however not be generally made. To take just one example, in an official letter from 1733 concerning the salary of the executioner, we can read that the executed, Michel Blix, went to his execution in such a pious manner that one must say he was saved.365 One can see also how there were times and places where the state took a spiritual responsibility for the possible salvation of the condemned, whether by providing priests to work in the gaols or by ensuring the condemned were prepared for execution. 363 Martschukat 2000a p 29, 44 sq, see also Sandén 2016 p 143 sq. 364 See e g Lächele 1996 p 181 sq, Andersson 2002 p 322 sq and Martschukat 2000b p 62 sqq. None of these limits their presentation to the concept presented above but seem to build on it. 365 ”Samme Delinquent gick frimodigt och vackert uti en stor andacht till sin död att man efter Menskelig tanke intet annat kan säij, utan han dödde Sahln”. Letter from Johan Golin to governor Stieerncrantz 25 May 1733 Ea3 Nyland länskontors arkivRAH. Seealso an official note from Nuremberg 1612 on the certainty that the executed comes to Paradise and life eternal in Dülmen 1988 p 165. 108
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